Pornography has long been a controversial topic in the Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities, though recently scholars and activists from a variety of disciplinary and experiential backgrounds have begun to move beyond divisive ‘for and against’ arguments to focus closely on pornography’s many instantiations, its problems and potentials, and its relationships with established and new theoretical and methodological approaches. As such, the multiplicity of perspectives in the emerging interdisciplinary field of Porn Studies is rivalled only by the diversity, proliferation, mutability and mainstreaming of pornographies themselves. This edited, peer-reviewed volume will constitute a snapshot of current academic thought in relation to pornographies in order to reflect and put into dialogue the many innovative approaches that seek to understand porn cultures, histories, social relations and political economies.

We particularly welcome proposals for chapters from new voices in the study of pornography and envisage that these will sit alongside, challenge and complement work from more established writers in the field.

Topics may include but are not restricted to:

Alternative pornographies

Amateur pornographies

Close reading of specific pornographic texts in relation to constructions of gender, ethnicity, sexuality and/or social class

Consumption and/or production of pornographies

Critical perspectives on gender, postfeminism and discourses of empowerment

Disability, bodies and pornography

LGBT pornographies and pornographic subcultures

‘Mummy porn’ (50 Shades of Grey, etc.) and literary pornographies

Political pornographies

Porn histories and genres

‘Pornification’ and the mainstreaming of pornography in mass culture

Self-pornification via social media

Sex-positive feminist perspectives on pornography and critiques of this

‘Dirty’ food marketing

Fetishized porn and categories of ‘other’

Sex workers and the porn industry

Porn for women

The volume will be part of the University of Chester’s Issues in the Social Sciences (Series Editor: Katherine Harrison) and will be published by University of Chester Press (further information about the Press can be viewed here; details of a recent publication in the series can be viewed here). Finished chapters will be 6,500 words in length and written in accessible style for a diverse readership.

If you are interested in contributing a chapter to this volume please send an abstract of no more than 300 words and a short biographical note detailing institutional affiliation (where applicable) to both Katherine Harrison (k.harrison@chester.ac.uk) and Cassie Ogden (c.ogden@chester.ac.uk) by 12 January 2015.

Contributors will be informed of acceptance by30 January 2015. Final drafts of chapters will be expected in April 2015 with publication scheduled for summer 2016. All contributions will be reviewed by the editors and, additionally, blind peer reviewed by an expert reader.